Assignment: Paper

You will be required to write a 4-5-page investigation of a work of art you select and the artist who created it. You are required to visit the webpage listed to below to choose your artist and select a work of art to discuss and critique in a formal, iconographic, and historical context.
The process of art criticism involves description, formal analysis, interpretation, and value judgment. The first step is to put into words a description of what you see, then formally analyzing the visual elements and principles of design. Next, subjectively interpret (hopefully with new insight) what the content is, considering style. Finally, judging, and going beyond prejudging to discernment, the work of art being studied; what do you think the artist's intentions were? Was this communicated? Does it have value? Can you recognize the aesthetic quality in the work? Additionally, biographical or historical information should be offered. Therefore, education and evaluation help to creatively critique a work of art.

Responses to artworks based on value judgment alone are not necessarily based on comprehension but simple subjectivity. As it states in the book Artforms (2013), "If we close our eyes and minds to new work that is hard to understand, we will miss the opportunity to learn from fresh insights."

Thanks for your participation this week. As we prepare to move forward to Week 7, I wanted to remind you all about the museum paper. If you've been reading my posts, this is repeat info, but it's good to review.

I want to add some important items for you to consider:

* Note- every paper is scanned through plagiarism software. To ensure a clean report avoid using quoted material. I am not interested in the quotes you find on the internet or from the book. I want you to write original material, using what you have learned. I strongly encourage you to paraphrase, and use full citation. Paraphrasing is putting the original material you wish to cite in your own words.

* It's more important that you view art in person. You may visit an art gallery, write on public art, or even view a casual art show in a cafe if you were not able to travel to a museum. Just email me to let me know, please.

* Quotes will not count toward your page minimums. I want to encourage you to NOT use quoted material, as this is your interpretation of the art in the museum/gallery setting. (If you use quotes, and your paper is less than the required page minimum, you will receive a deduction.

FINAL PAPER FORMATTING

Four to five pages, double-spaced, 10 or 12-point type (Times or Times New Roman only), 1" margins. The required 4-5-page count does not include title page, images, or reference/bibliography page. Make sure you proofread your papers for incorrect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other errors.

The format to complete the Final Paper is Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx).

References: A minimum of four sources is required. Research can come from the Internet (reputable sources only) scholarly articles (jstor, for example), books on art history, politics, etc. Sources should be varied and academic and/or professional in nature. Your text cannot be one of the four minimum sources, but can be included.

Please cite and reference all material according to the MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style. The use of any secondary reference without providing citation is plagiarism and will receive a score of 0.

What should be cited? Anything that is not considered common knowledge (information that can be found in at least 4 sources). This includes opinions, judgements, little-known facts, and direct quotes. Footnotes and endnotes are used to give credit to sources of any material borrowed, summarized or paraphrased. They are intended to refer readers to the exact pages of the works listed in the Works Cited, References, or Bibliography section.

Write the Final Paper:

The following will help you write your paper. It should be used as a guideline, not an outline for approaching your paper. This is very similar to the process used by art critics. This website might also help you organize your paper.

A. Identification: Note the title of the work, the date, the artist (if known), medium, and size.

B. Description: What do you see? As fully as possible, describe what you see.

o What medium is used? What is it made of?
o How big is it?
o Go into detail about what you see. How would you describe it, in detail, to someone who had never seen it?
o What subjects are represented?
o It can be helpful to begin looking at a work of art from the middle and work your way out.

C. Analysis: Describe the form of the work Explain how visual elements and principles of design are used in the work. The terms in chapters 2, 3 & 4 will be very helpful. Go back and look at the chapter outlines or Short Paper assignment. Use them to:

o Describe the use of visual elements such as line, shape, color & space used in the pieces. For example: In what way is it balanced? Is it asymmetrical or symmetrical? What is emphasized? What seems to be the dominating visual element? Is it realistic or abstract?

D. Interpretation: What is the content of the work? What does it mean? What do you think the artist was trying to communicate? How does the artist accomplish this with form? This is an important part of analyzing a work of art, how form and content work together.

E. Research: Include historical information about the artist. Knowing about the artist's history can provide interesting insights into his/her work and how the work reflects the time and culture.

F. Value Judgment: Does the piece have any value or worth? What did you like about the work? Was it the form, content, or subject matter? Did it remind you of something that you have seen or experienced?

o How does it make you feel?
o How or why does it evoke these feelings?
o Rethink first description and go beyond "I like it" or "I don't like it"
o What did the artist have in mind? Can you tell?
o Does the piece seem to have a certain level of insight into a subject matter?
o Does it seem inexhaustible? Is there enough interest to hold your attention? When something is inexhaustible it calls us back again and again. Can you tell? Did the artist succeed?